Tag Archives: AA

If you or a loved one is attempting to maintain recovery after completing a treatment plan in a rehabilitation facility, you are not alone. The process of maintaining sobriety is a daily struggle for many people, but it does get easier with each passing day. One of the most important things you can do is to learn about the five most effective relapse prevention techniques and incorporate them into your routine.

Relapse Prevention Strategies

Addiction is not a one size fits all disease. Likewise, it requires personalized care in order to overcome. Just like treatment, relapse prevention techniques should be individualized in order to provide the best results. For individuals nearing the completion of their treatment or who have recently finished a program, aftercare is a worthwhile option. Aftercare services are conducted on an outpatient basis and gradually fade out over time as you become more confident in your own ability to maintain your recovery progress. These services incorporate many of the five most used relapse prevention strategies, such as the following:

Individual counseling

Group therapy

Meetings with an addiction specialist

Psychiatric services

The fifth technique in maintaining sobriety is participation in community based groups. Options such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous offer convenient locations nationwide at various times, so even the most busy individuals can fit them into their schedule. These groups provide a strong network of individuals with long term sobriety as well as people who are relatively new to recovery. They can serve as a support system and help you stay accountable for your well-being. In addition to these benefits, community based groups address a serious concern that people in recovery face– making new sober friends. Spending time with old friends who you may have used substances with in the past can lead to relapse. By being active in a community based group, you can meet like minded individuals and make new friends who are committed to maintaining sobriety.

If you are ready to begin your journey towards recovery from addiction, help is within your reach. Our compassionate team of addiction specialists are waiting to assist you through every step of the process. Get started today by calling 800-737-0933

Recovery does not end after going to rehab. The Betty Ford foundation defines recovery as a “voluntarily maintained lifestyle characterized by sobriety, personal health, and citizenship.” There is no mastery level of recovery; recovery is a lifelong process. Though the idea of recovery being a lifelong process may sound daunting to you at first, life in recovery is full of rich rewards. Recovery is not possible if citizenship is not a part of it; therefore, ongoing support is a must after going to rehab.

There are several sources of support that you can turn to after going to rehab:

Twelve Step Meetings

Twelve Step Meetings (e.g. Alcoholics’ Anonymous, Narcotics’ Anonymous, Sex Addicts Anonymous, etc.) are the oldest and most renowned form of support after going to rehab. The theory behind them is having addicts come together for mutual aid.

Outpatient Treatment

Treating the psychological component of addiction often takes longer than the length of your stay in rehab. Intensive-outpatient meets three to five times a week for three hours. The program includes counseling, group therapy, and education. Regular outpatient rehab is similar to meeting with a therapist once or twice a week for one to two hours. Group therapy and education may also be a part of outpatient rehab.

Twelve Step Alternatives

There are several alternatives to 12-Step Programs (e.g. SMART Recovery, LifeRing Secular Recovery, Women for Sobriety, etc.). There are many paths to the road to recovery. The 12-Steps are not for everybody. Research has shown 12-Step Alternatives are just as effective -if not more effective than the 12 Steps. Spiritual/religious fellowships (e.g. church) are even effective support for some people.

Why Ongoing Support After Rehab is a Must

While professionals can provide insight based on textbooks and research, the best support for a recovering addict is other recovering addicts. Other newly-recovering addicts can provide empathy that you cannot receive elsewhere. Since they are going through the same challenges and experiences as you are, you can collaborate with them on finding solutions to living a successful life in recovery. Being around healthy people is a must for successful recovery, and other recovering addicts who are actively working a program are healthy people.

Genesis House is located in Lake Worth, Florida. Our detox and residential treatment programs can help you jumpstart your new life in recovery. In addition, we provide dual diagnosis, Christian rehab, specialized rehab for uniform officers, and family programs. Most major health insurance plans are accepted.

If you are interested in Genesis House, call them today at 800-737-0933

Welcome Spring!

Today is a new day and a great day to be sober! Every day that we get through without picking up a drink or drug it is a BIG DEAL. Each day we learn how this is an amazing accomplishment when considering where we came from. Can you remember the first day trying to stay sober? Did you constantly looking at the clock thinking a minute that passed by felt like an hour? Time went by so slow in the beginning. However, as we stuck around and continued to do the work as we went to meetings, got a home group, worked with our sponsor and gave back to others in service work, time did not go by so sluggish. There was a point I felt I didn’t have enough time to do everything I wanted to get done!

At times in our active addiction we became so isolated we could not even go to the supermarket without being under the influence and now there is hope for us! We used to not be able to do anything such as go to a family function or a social gathering without being drunk or high and now we are able to actually enjoy them without the crutches of a substance. We start to love our new life and embrace the style of living in a positive way.

Recovery becomes enjoyable, we gain deep and meaningful relationships, and start to gain our families trust back. Suddenly the NA/AA dances we found “stupid” -we are now in attendance at with our fellowship friends. We learn to live life again and on life’s terms at that! Embracing the journey feels wonderful and I am grateful!

Life in recovery is beautiful and exhilarating once you learn the tools to successfully live it. However, the road to recovery can be difficult and emotionally exhausting as you learn to face your demons and live life without the best friend that was killing you.

Rehab is the place where you put the burning iodine on your wounds. After the burning dissipates, the healing will become more appealing. There will be days in recovery where you will be grateful, humble, and feel on top of the world. There will also be days where you will feel despondent, bewildered, and question whether you should continue recovery. You must feel the highs and lows of your emotions to understand them and resolve them. Though you may be despondent in the short-term during recovery, you will feel better in the long-term.

The Hard Parts of Recovery

Discovering the True Cause of Your Addiction

You may think that other people (e.g. parents, friends, teachers, bullies, etc.) and life events (e.g. abuse, death of loved ones, natural disasters, etc.) were the cause of your addiction. While they may have been responsible for the factors that have contributed to your addiction, they were not the cause. The cause of your addiction and the inevitable of your addiction was due how you internalized people’s actions towards you and life events due to your biology and psyche. That is why siblings can be raised the exact same way and turn out different. In recovery, you will learn to correct your errors in thinking and defects of character that ignited your addiction.

Learning that Recovering is More about Just Abstinence

Recovery is not just about quitting drugs and alcohol; it is about adopting a whole new perspective and life for yourself, which takes intense work. You need to take the therapy that you receive in rehab seriously. You need to be honest about your psychological issues and be amenable to the suggestions that your counselors give you.

Realizing Recovery is a Lifelong Process

There is no cure for addiction. Addiction can only be put into remission by not actively using mind-altering and mood-altering substances, applying the tools that you have learned in psychotherapy, connecting with others in recovery, and living an overall healthy lifestyle. You cannot master or complete the recovery process because you are always growing and improving as a person.

Genesis House is located in Lake Worth, Florida that treats drug and alcohol addiction in adults who are 18 years old and over. They provide a safe, nurturing healing environment to start the genesis of your recovery. Call them today to start your journey of recovery or ask general questions about addiction recovery at 800-737-0933

Once we are clean and sober, we must face these awful things called feelings! They are new and we have no idea how to deal with them. This is why it is important to get a sponsor and work the steps together.

We must learn about the spiritual principle of having faith in a power greater than ourselves. We used because of our feelings and continued to use just to avoid dealing with them. The emptiness we felt would not go away, no matter how much we used. We put the substances down and now the feelings are here- staring us right in the face! Now what?! We have to learn to have faith, BUT also how to apply it to our lives. For me, I find situations on a DAILY basis where I need to apply faith. Some days I do well- other days- not so well. There are times we are faced with days of heavy feelings that are so strong that faith is the last thing we think about. So, on those days we just do not pick up no matter what. We are not perfect; but over time, we will learn and get better at applying it.

What is faith? By definition it is complete trust or confidence in someone or something. For us users, Faith is the principle we learn to help replace our feelings of FEAR! We learn a new feeling that “it will all work out” and your higher power has got this. We begin to see the evidence of faith in our life and also the lack of it.

Faith is invisible, it is something inside of us but the power of our faith is very visible to others! Faith helps us deal with situations and can be very appealing to others when they see us getting through situations.

Therapist Rob Hooper once told me he heard in the rooms, “you are holding on to a thread, when you could have a comforter.” Control gave me a false feeling of faith, but I was being controlled by the situation- what kind of faith is that? The hardest part was letting go of the idea I could control everything and believe something else could. My struggle with accepting faith and giving up my control was a long battle (I eventually lost that battle). I did not gain or develop faith overnight, but it came when I was ready to accept it.

Today, I choose to call my higher power God. I learned in this process that faith without work cannot be called faith, it needs to be the way we live.

“Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this journey if you learn all the right words but never do anything about the issue at hand? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it?” (James 2:14-17). This means we cannot just say we have faith, it is more than verbalizing it. We must affirm our faith in our life; faith is shown in our “works” and behavior – in our daily life. The surrender is not easy to get to, but worth the journey to embrace freedom.

Addiction does not discriminate. Anyone can become afflicted with the disease of addiction regardless of his or her income, education level, race, religion, etc. People’s professions dot not make them immune from addiction, even if their profession is a police officer or a firefighter.

You may consider it ironic for a police officer or a firefighter to face addiction issues. However, as the addiction rates of the general population have surged in recent years, the addiction rates among police officers and firefighters have surged in proportion. The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that 806,400 law enforcement workers suffer from addiction. A study done in 2012 showed that 56 percent of firefighters were binge-drinkers. There are a variety of factors behind the prevalence of addiction in police officers and firefighters.

Stress

Police officers and firefighters have very high-stress jobs. The shifts are long, and the work is physically taxing and mentally taxing. The hours are not limited to nine to five on weekdays. Police officers and firefighters have to work late night shifts, overnight shifts, weekend shifts, and holiday shifts, so they are given little time for family, recreation, and decompression.

Traumatic Experiences on the Job

Police officers and firefighters are bombarded with violence on a constant basis. Their genuine feelings regarding these traumatic experiences often go unexpressed. Family and friends often do not want to listen to a police officer and firefighter talk about the details of his or her job. Police officers and firefighters do not get the opportunity to support their fellow workers due to confidentiality policies prohibiting them from discussing cases. Often, police officers and firefighters detach from all emotions as a survival mechanism, and using substances are a method to make that possible.

Mental Health Disorders

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), anxiety, and depression tend to be prevalent among police officers and firefighters. These mental health disorders tend to go untreated among police officers and firefighters due to the stigma surrounding mental health disorders in the United States and the profession. Using alcohol or drugs is a way for them to self-medicate these undiagnosed and untreated disorders.

There is Hope for Police Officers and Firefighters

Police officers and firefighters are often hesitant to seek help for their addictions for several reasons.

Stigma surrounding substance abuse in their profession

Denial, thinking “I am not like those people I arrest” “I’m a police officer or a firefighter, so this cannot happen to me”

Stigma from their community because of their substance abuse and profession

Losing their Job

While they have legitimate reasons to be concerned, they should not make their concerns a barrier to getting into recovery. If their addiction goes untreated, it will only worsen and may lead to incarcerations, institutionalizations, or death. The benefit of recovery outweighs the stigma and potential losses. There are many resources police officers and firefighters can turn to for help.

A common thing I hear from fellow addicts in the 12 step meetings is “when will I get my family’s trust back?” or “when can I make my amends for my addiction?” Now this is great to feel remorse and want to make the situation right with their loved ones but it takes time. Let’s face it, when we get sober many of us are not the same people as when we were while using substances, now we become more aware of the past.

When we get to step 9 and make our amends, it does not stop there. Changing the way we live is a lifetime process and perhaps the most significant amends we can make. Therefore, we show our amends through actions, not just words.

We may not be at step 9 yet, but we want to show our loved ones we are working to get better. Each day we make amends by doing the next right thing we are and the way, we are “making it right” is shown through our actions, no words are needed. The ones we love will see it rather than us having to tell them and trust me, that will mean more! Later, when we get to step 9 our words will line up with our behaviors. We are right where we are supposed to be, even if it does not feel that way.

Today we can work on an actively “living our amends” by building our integrity and doing the right thing, even when others are not looking. During step 9 we make amends, but the process is everyday in our lives. There is no finish line, we must race to achieve a prize, “no” we walk before we run. Keep walking the path of recovery and you will be running before you know it!